Time for Remembrance – Memorial Weekend. This Week At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

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Time for Remembrance – Memorial Weekend

With the sound of Roaring Thunder still echoing in my ears as they passed by on their way to the District, it’s time to remember and honor those that have given their lives for their country and freedom, protecting those here and around the world. Those fallen on the field of Flanders, Khe Sanh, Gettysburg or Helmand Province, you will always be remembered.

Literature, whether novels or poetry, is a powerful tool to keep memories alive, evoke the emotions, the pain, the hopes and fears, the bravery behind those that go off to war, no matter the year or war, controversy or no. Siegfried Sassoon or Walt Whitman, John McCrae’s Field of Flanders (seen above) to all the anonymous poems and letters left at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington, DC (gathered up daily by volunteers to be stored and/or displayed at the museum). I’ve included one such poem here as well. They touch at the heart, the mind, the soul. They make us remember. It’s Memorial Weekend. Do you have a favorite poem you could share?